Gas station, car wash demolished for car dealership expansion

Doug Stewart of Stewart Construction, rural Indianola, demolishes the former Bunstock oil, service station and car wash at the corner of West Eighth and B in McCook.

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — The corner of West Eighth and B Street in McCook will take on a whole new look after a 50-year-old service station and car wash are demolished and the debris hauled away.

Lee Janssen, of Janssen-Kool Honda, located a block north at 711 West C, bought the Bunstock oil, service station and car wash property to expand parking for his car inventory. The cinder block retaining wall between Janssen-Kool’s south lot and Bunstock’s will be torn down and the two properties sloped and blended.

Janssen said the building “had outlived it usefulness and couldn’t really be converted for any other purpose.” The awning along B Street and the two-story office/storage building on the northeast corner will remain.

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

Doug Stewart of Stewart Construction, rural Indianola, started this week on the demolition of the building. Stewart said he crushes the cinder blocks and bricks for reuse and resale; the rest of the debris is hauled to his landfill south of Indianola.

Donnie Schamel of Schamel Salvage, also of rural Indianola, salvaged metal from the structure.

Cathy Bunstock Cox indicates on the Facebook page “Remember When in McCook,” that her dad, Bob Bunstock, built the corner business and operated it as a Mobil station. Later, her brother, Chuck, operated it as a Conoco station. Cathy writes, “I wish I knew how many young men were employed there … ”

Chuck said the building was built during 1967, “and we opened it in ‘68. It closed the last day of August, 2001.”